Two More Jamaican Joints
By Becky Billingsley
In November 2010 we told you about two new Grand Strand Jamaican restaurants, and since then two more Jamaican eateries have opened.
Clarendon Cuisine, Myrtle Beach
In March Yuan Watson has opened a new Jamaican restaurant in Myrtle Beach called Clarendon Cuisine. The small eatery off Kings Highway near 16th Avenue North has four tables and does a brisk carry-out business.
The menu isn't extensive, but classic Jamaican is done well. Through 2 p.m. daily there are four $6.75 lunch specials: Brown Stew Chicken, Curry Chicken, Jerk Chicken and Wings with fries. Each special includes rice and peas, a beverage and one side dish. The sides are rice and peas, white rice, fried plantains, steamed vegetables and French fries.
There are also daily dinner specials for $6.50-$11.50. On Mondays and Tuesdays it's Brown Stew Chicken and Curry Chicken. Wednesdays and Thursdays add Curry Shrimp and Curry Fish to the first two selections; and on Fridays and Saturdays the specials are Brown Stew Chicken, Oxtail, Curry Goat, Jerk Chicken and Fried Fish.
If you've never had Brown Stew Chicken, it's not spicy like Jerk Chicken. The meat is tender and falling of the bone and bathed in a rich dark brown gravy.
Clarendon Cuisine Jamaican Restaurant is at 1605 N. Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach, and the number is 843-448-8000. It's open from 11 a.m. -1 0 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Photo Gallery
Jam Rock, Garden City
Anthony Frame grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and his 99-year-old grandmother taught him to cook.
Before opening his new restaurant in Garden City, Frame had a Jamaican grocery in Myrtle Beach. When he was a grocer, Frame started cooking his native specialties at home and taking the food to the store where customers snapped up the plates. He decided he needed a bigger space for a full-blown restaurant.
That brings us to 2520 U.S. 17 Business in Garden City, which is in the Oasis Plaza. Frame transformed the space with lots of green and yellow paint and now has a roomy dining room where customers can sit down and relax and properly appreciate his style of cooking.
Frame's Jerk Chicken has a sultry smoked flavor with a delicious sauce that's sweet at the beginning and then provides pockets of heat across the palate.
Curry Goat is also a fantastic journey into Jamaican seasonings, which Frame has used with finesse to create a salty/spicy dish with a pleasant afterburn.
Side dishes are tasty and plated attractively. Steamed cabbage contains ribbon of red pepper and carrot coins; Peas and Rice is molded in a pretty mound; and Fried Plantains are iridescent with a uniformly brown caramelized sheen.
Other dishes include Brown Stew Chicken, Fried Jamaican Chicken Wings, Jamaican Fried Chicken, Oxtails with baby lima beans, and a sweet yeast roll called Coco Bread.
On Wednesdays and Saturdays Frame also makes the Jamaican national dish called Ackee and Salt Fish. Sauteed salt fish is served with scallions, onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, seasoned ackee (a fruit that takes on the flavor of the salt fish) that's served with festival (bread), boiled dumplings and green banana.
Jam Rock, at 2520 U.S. 17 Business in Garden City, is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and the number is 843-947-0357.
Doesn’t look very appealing.